The former Transndestr leader, Igor Smirnov, is facing a probe over his alleged involvement in the arms trade, and abductions, the Kommersant daily said on Monday.
The allegations were made by Mikhail Bergman, a representative of the current president of the breakaway Transdnestr Region of Moldova.
Bergman asked the Russian Investigative Committee to look into the activities of “an organized criminal group” led by Smirnov and a former state security minister, Vladimir Antyufeyev.
The group engaged in “arms trafficking, blackmail, illegitimate financial operations, and the [physical] elimination of persons standing in their way,” Bergman claims.
Smirnov was the president of the Transdnestr Republic for 20 years. In September 2011, he announced plans to seek a fifth consecutive presidential term but lost the poll to Yevgeny Schevchuk.